Interpersonal skills online

The use of ICT and virtual learning environments (VLEs), together with the explosion in social networking and other web technologies, is generating a growing interest in how interpersonal skills are developed (or not) in virtual worlds. In the same way that interpersonal communication is playing a more significant part in face-to-face education, computer-mediated communication (CMC) also involves increased social collaboration which places a much greater emphasis on interpersonal communication skills. However, interpersonal communication in an online situation brings new challenges - the absence of visual communication with the associated facial expressions, gestures and body language creates the need for new ways to interpret meaning.